The moderating effects of leverage and marketing intensity on alliance formation announcements

Purpose: March’s 1991 work on exploitation and exploration has been studied in many different industries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze signals emanating from exploration and exploitation alliances within the pharmaceutical industry context. Specifically, the authors explore market reactions to announcements of alliance formations based not only on alliance type but also in terms of their marketing intensity and leverage. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employ a two-stage event-study market model using a two-day event window (event days 0, +1), creating cumulative abnormal returns (CARs). In the second stage, the authors regress the CARs against an array of control and explanatory variables. Findings: Findings suggest that even though firm announcements of exploration and exploitation formations initially generate favorable market reactions, the former has a greater impact on CAR relative to the latter. Furthermore, leverage and marketing intensity moderate the relationship between firms’ alliance formation announcements and CARs generated. In particular, firms’ alliance formation announcements generate relatively greater market reactions at lower (higher) levels of the firm’s leverage (market intensity). Research limitations/implications: Event studies are valuable for gauging initial impressions of management action, but they are not meant to address long-term value creation. While market reactions suggest the likelihood of an alliance’s success or failure, managers also assess the risk to a firm’s financial health should the alliance fail. As a result, announcements that signal the firm has discretionary capabilities to ameliorate the effect of a failed alliance are better received. Originality/value: This study is the first to analyze the stock market’s perception and valuation of different types of risk, classified by exploration vs exploitation alliances. The study also contributes to the literature by analyzing how investors use the information about a firm’s financial leverage and marketing activities to fine-tune their valuation of different types of risk-taking activities.